MAHAR and VIBERT

The Rensselaer County jail appears to be in somewhat of a state of chaos, or at least an elevated state of chaos because it’s been in a state of chaos since Gary Gordon ran against Sheriff Jack Mahar in 2011.

Since that election and everything that led up to it, the corrections officers have been pretty much split with half of the COs in Mahar’s camp and half not in his camp.

Here is a rundown of what happened in somewhat chronological order:

--- Someone taped Gordon, who is an investigator in the District Attorney’s Office, offering to fix tickets for friends and/or family members of COS.

--- Former union President Mark Piche resigned from the job he had for 22 years and the last word was he was facing charges of tax evasion at his family’s restaurant. His counterpart, union VP and another ardent and vocal Gordon supporter, Kevin Rogers, is still under scrutiny for his role in allegations of misappropriating union funds. In other words spending funds at strip clubs, high priced steak joints and otherwise using it as their personal checkbook.  

--- Nurses working at the jail are now in trouble for using their access code at Samaritan Hospital to get a look at the medical records of COs who may or may not have been out of work for a while and for a while I mean months – at full pay. Obviously, medical records are top secret and it’s against federal law to access them or disseminate them with no apparent cause.

The sheriff is conducting his own investigation into the matter and a nursing supervisor and a nurse working at the jail are in some hot water. The question, of course, is if they acted on their own accord or if they were just following orders from above. I find it hard to fathom why the nurses would randomly access health records or what purpose they would have for doing it. But, anyway, that’s just speculation on my part.

It will also be interesting to see which CO’s records were accessed and which camp they are in.

--- Master Sgt. Anthony Patricelli was arrested for calling up another CO and threatening to break his jaw.

--- Then, earlier this week, Ruth Vibert, who was brought in as the new chief of corrections at the jail not even a year ago, was unceremoniously fired.

The official word is that she failed to meet educational requirements after she was hired to oversee some 200 people but never followed through. Not to be too cynical but that sounds like a stretch.

Mahar gushed during an announcement last March about her hire: “We are thrilled to have her on board and have her be part of our team.”

She brought years of law enforcement experience to the job and at the time said: “I’m looking forward to getting the opportunity to work with all the professionals here, implement the vision that the sheriff has identified for me during out conversations and just bring the professionalism and cohesiveness into the corrections side of the department.”

“Professionalism and cohesiveness” are not two adjectives I would use to describe the Rensselaer County jail at this point in time.